UK: The Trades Union Congress and Northern Powerhouse Partnership group of business and civic leaders have called for a cross-party consensus on infrastructure investment, following a ‘crunch meeting’ of regional leaders, unions and industry heads held to discuss the future of Northern Powerhouse Rail.
In a joint statement on November 14, TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak and NPP Chief Executive Henri Murison said ‘Northern Powerhouse Rail must be delivered in full and on an accelerated timetable’, which means ’the completion of upgrades which can be delivered most quickly’.
They said this includes:
- improvements to the East Coast Main Line from York to Newcastle;
- development of a proposed new Bradford station;
- electrification from Hull to Selby.
They also called for building more resilience and capacity into the rail network through construction of sections of new alignment, including key sections between:
- Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport;
- Liverpool and West Yorkshire;
- Huddersfield and Bradford;
- reopening the Leamside Line south of Newcastle.
They also said ‘there must be no fire-sale of HS2 land’, and called for a strengthening of the National Infrastructure Commission with unions, regional leaders, industry heads and bodies like NPP having guaranteed stakeholder roles.
The called for fiscal rules to be reformed to take more account of long-term economic development, with a wider range of funding options to get projects off the ground.
They said ‘it is normal in other leading economies for unions, government, employers, and other important stakeholders to sit down together regularly and plan 20-30 years ahead. We need the same collaborative approach to industrial strategy here. We owe it to future generations to make the right, long-term decisions now.’
